High tunnels, or unheated plastic greenhouses, are becoming increasingly popular among organic vegetable growers across the United States. However, the intensive production typical of these systems presents soil health challenges, including salinization due to high fertilizer or compost inputs coupled with lack of rainfall to leach salts. Legume cover crops may improve soil health in high tunnels by reducing the need for external inputs, while adding organic matter. We tested the soil health effects of a winter hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) cover crop used to replace fertilizer N in an organic tomato cropping system in high tunnels. Studies were replicated across three sites differing in climate and soil type (Kansas, Kentucky, and Minnesota) over three years. We measured vetch cover crop effects on a suite of soil health indicators, including potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), permanganate oxidizable carbon, and microbial biomass. Preliminary results suggest that vetch effects on PMN were highly variable. Soil mineral N, meanwhile, was often lower in the vetch treatment than in a fertilized control, both in spring and in fall. While further work on vetch effects on crop yields is needed, our results suggest that even legume cover crops such as vetch have the potential to reduce nitrate leaching.
Objectives: the study aims to assess nurses' practices toward chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) for children at the hematology center, and to determine the effectiveness of the health education program on nurses' practices toward CIPN, and to find out the relationships between the effectiveness of Health education program and demographic characteristics of nurses.
Methodology: Use quasi-experimental design in the study (a design that divides the sample into two groups, a study group and a control group, with data collection in three stages). This study was conducted at a hematology center in Baghdad city for the period (from December 16th, 2019 to 8th May 202
... Show MoreBackground: Oral health is a mirror of general health. During pregnancy, oral health is affected by changes in saliva and oral hygiene measures which may lead to more dental caries.
Objective: Assess oral health status in relation to salivary antimicrobial peptides in pregnant women.
Subjects and Method: This cross sectional study was carried out in different primary health care centers in Rusafa sectors/ Baghdad city. The total sample included was 80 women (their age range from 21-30). The study group consisted of 40 pregnant women: half of them were in the first trimester and others were in third trimester, while the control group included 40 non-pregnant married fem
... Show MoreGrass carp at a weight of 34.68 + 2 g were gradually exposed to four saline concentrations: tap water (0.1), 3, 6, 9, and 12 gm/litter, and the first concentration represented a control treatment. Fish were fed on a diet with a protein content of 30% for ten weeks. Results of the growth experiment showed that the feed conversion rate was 2.46, 3.58, 4.84, 6.77, and -8.56 in the first to fifth treatments, respectively, and the rate feed conversion efficiency was 40.65, 27. 93, 20.66, 14.77 and 11.68 %, while the protein intake was 22.38, 20.44, 18.86, 17.47 and 16.56 g in salt concentrations of 0.1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 g/L, respectively. In another experiment to study the effect of salt acc
Experimental research was carried out to investigate the effect of fire flame (high temperature) on specimens of short columns manufactured using SCC (Self compacted concrete). To simulate the real practical fire disasters, the specimens were exposed to high
temperature flame, using furnace manufactured for this purpose. The column specimens were cooled in two ways. In the first the specimens were left in the air and suddenly cooled using water, after that the specimens were loaded to study the effect of degree of
temperature, steel reinforcement ratio and cooling rate, on the load carrying capacity of the reinforced concrete column specimens. The results will be compared with behaviour of columns without burning (control specime
The global rise in temperature and the desert climatic conditions prevalent in Middle Eastern countries have exacerbated rutting distress in heavily trafficked highways. Conventional asphalt binders with a high-temperature performance grade (PG 70) have proven inadequate under such extreme conditions, necessitating the development of modified binders with enhanced high-temperature performance. While polymer modification using styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS), an elastomeric polymer, and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), a plastomeric polymer, has been widely studied, limited research provides a direct comparison of their effectiveness at both the binder and mixture levels under extremely high-temperature conditions. This study addresses this gap
... Show MoreA new reversed phase- high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method with Ultraviolet-Visible spectrophotometry has been optimized and validated for the simultaneous extraction and determination of organic acids present in Iraqi calyces of Hibiscus Sabdraffia Linn. The method is based on using ultrasonic bath for extracting organic acids. Limit of detection in µg/ml of Formic acid, Acetic acid, Oxalic acid, Citric acid, Succinic acid, Tartaric acid, and Malic acid 126.8498×10-6, 113.6005×10-6, 97.0513×10-6, 49.7925×10-6, 84.0753×10-6, 92.6551×10-6, and 106.1633×10-6 ,respectively. The concentration of organic acids found in dry spacemen of calyces of Iraqi Hibiscus Sabdraffia Linn. under study: Formic acid, Acetic acid,
... Show MoreDiyala river is the most important tributaries in Iraq, this river suffering from pollution, therefore, this research aimed to predict organic pollutants that represented by biological oxygen demand BOD, and inorganic pollutants that represented by total dissolved solids TDS for Diyala river in Iraq, the data used in this research were collected for the period from 2011-2016 for the last station in the river known as D17, before the river meeting Tigris river in Baghdad city. Analysis Neural Network ANN was used in order to find the mathematical models, the parameters used to predict BOD were seven parameters EC, Alk, Cl, K, TH, NO3, DO, after removing the less importance parameters. While the parameters that used to predict TDS were fourte
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